Would Be Christian but for Devotion to Zionism and Jabotinskyâ€”achimeir

September 14, 1933

Jerusalem (Sep. 13)

Aba Achimeir, an extreme Revisionist and defendant in the Arlosoroff murder and Brith Baryonim sedition cases, would become a Christian but for his “devotion to Jabotinsky and Zionism”, according to an interview in the Doar Hayom today.

“I would become a Christian were it not for my devotion to Jabotinsky and Zionism because of the slanders and evils that the Jews are levelling at me,” Achimeir told the interviewer.

Asked why he did not turn to Islam, Achimeir answered, “Because my heart turns to the West, not to the East.”

The interview followed unusual disclosures yesterday at the magistrate’s hearing of charges against fourteen Revisionists accused of belonging to a terroristic secret society.

Zvi Rosin, a handwriting expert and police interpreter, testified regarding several letters and proclamations seized among the possessions of the accused men, which revealed, among other things, plans to employ girl propagandists. He read several extracts from the correspondence.

TEACHINGS OF CHRIST

One of these, which drew particular attention, was a reference to “a certain Jew in Jerusalem whose ideology rings true and lives within our conscience.”

The defense attorney, Dr. Cohen, protested that there was nothing in this reference which could be considered as against the public peace since it referred to Jesus Christ and his revolutionary leadership and did not refer to present-day leaders. He offered to back this assertion with citation of passages from Achimeir’s diary dealing with the teachings of Christ.

HAD REMOVED SWASTIKA

One of the disclosures made at the hearing yesterday was that three of the defendants, Dviri, Hornstein and Svorai, were accused of removing the swastika flag from the German consulate building in Jerusalem last May. A statement to the police by Rachel Mark of Jerusalem, asserting that the three defendants had removed the flag and that she had taken it to Achimeir in Tel Aviv was read to the court. The act was nationalistic, not terroristic. she declared.

The Mark woman was called upon yesterday to testify but refused to do so. She was warned by the magistrate that if she persisted in her refusal before the district court, she would be liable to prosecution.

Inspector Solomon Goffer testified briefly to the finding of documents and other evidence in the possession of Dviri and Hornstein.

Contrary to previous sessions of the hearing, the court was half empty and much of the air of excitement surrounding the earlier sessions was absent. At the conclusion of the hearing, Achimeir was removed to prison, where he is held in connection with the Arlosoroff murder. The other defendants are free on bail. The hearing will be continued Sept. 26.